The GP60
Just a simple portrait of a favorite locomotive of mine. While not as beguiling as the truly unique GP30, I've always liked the lines and utilitarian angular look of EMD's first third generation diesel offering.
The last in a long line of classic standard cab four axle road switchers, the 3800 hp GP60s were direct descendants of the legendary 1500 hp GP7s that first rolled off the erecting shop floor in 1949. A total of 380 GP60s were built between 1985 and 1994 including cabless GP60B and wide cab GP60M variants exclusively for the Santa Fe. Ultimately the Southern Pacific purchased the first and last of the type built and amassed the largest fleet with 198 including the three Rio Grande units, the last ever delivered in black and orange for my favorite road.
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe owned the second largest at 126, the first 40 of which were standard cab models delivered in yellow bonnet livery. Nearly 18 years after the Santa Fe became one half of BNSF I found one still looking good on home rails. BNSF 8720 was blt. Jul. 1989 as ATSF 4020 and is seen working an unidentified local freight beneath the watchful eye of 9301 ft. Mount Elden at about MP 340 on BNSF's Seligman Sun, the former Santa Fe transcon. She would wear this livery for another decade but was only just recently repainted into the modern BNSF scheme and continues to work now numbered 179.
Flagstaff, Arizona
Thursday May 17, 2012
The GP60
Just a simple portrait of a favorite locomotive of mine. While not as beguiling as the truly unique GP30, I've always liked the lines and utilitarian angular look of EMD's first third generation diesel offering.
The last in a long line of classic standard cab four axle road switchers, the 3800 hp GP60s were direct descendants of the legendary 1500 hp GP7s that first rolled off the erecting shop floor in 1949. A total of 380 GP60s were built between 1985 and 1994 including cabless GP60B and wide cab GP60M variants exclusively for the Santa Fe. Ultimately the Southern Pacific purchased the first and last of the type built and amassed the largest fleet with 198 including the three Rio Grande units, the last ever delivered in black and orange for my favorite road.
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe owned the second largest at 126, the first 40 of which were standard cab models delivered in yellow bonnet livery. Nearly 18 years after the Santa Fe became one half of BNSF I found one still looking good on home rails. BNSF 8720 was blt. Jul. 1989 as ATSF 4020 and is seen working an unidentified local freight beneath the watchful eye of 9301 ft. Mount Elden at about MP 340 on BNSF's Seligman Sun, the former Santa Fe transcon. She would wear this livery for another decade but was only just recently repainted into the modern BNSF scheme and continues to work now numbered 179.
Flagstaff, Arizona
Thursday May 17, 2012